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Updated: May 11, 2025
I have now to confess a fault as well as an imprudence punished, I believe, in the results. The behaviour of Mr. Coningham still rankled a little in my bosom.
With a side glance at the windows of the cottage as I passed, and the glimpse of a bright figure seated in the drawing-room window, I made for the stable, and found my Lilith waiting me. Once more I shifted my saddle, and rode home, without even another glance at the window as I passed. A day or two after, I received from Mr Coningham a ticket for the county ball, accompanied by a kind note.
But something prudential inside warned me that I could not afford to lose any friend I had; and although I was not prepared to confide my wrongs to Mr Coningham, I felt I might some day be glad of his counsel. My companion chatted away, lauded my mare, asked if I had seen Clara lately, and how the library was getting on. I answered him carelessly, without even a hint at my troubles.
'Yes; they're the finest elms in all the county those, he answered. 'Old Coningham knew what he was about when he got the last baronet to let him build his nest there. Here we are at the gate! We came out upon a country road, which ran between the wall of the park and a wooden fence along a field of grass. I offered James one of my apples, which he accepted.
'Don't you think, Miss Coningham, I said for the man was within hearing, 'we had better leave them both with the porter, and then we could go in together? I'm not sure that those flags, not to mention the steps, are good footing for that mare. 'Oh! you're afraid of your animal, are you? she rejoined. 'Very well. 'Shall I hold your stirrup for you?
'To make game of such verses. Any one with half a soul must see they were fine. 'Very wrong of you, indeed, my dear, said Mr Coningham from behind, in a voice that sounded as if he were smothering a laugh; but when I looked round, his face was grave. 'Then I suppose that half soul I haven't got, returned Clara. 'Oh! I didn't mean that, I said, lamely enough.
From Geoffrey I had never looked for anything but evil; of Mr Coningham I had expected differently, and I began to meditate the revenge of holding him up to himself: I would punish him in a manner which, with his confidence in his business faculty, he must feel: I would simply show him how the precipitation of selfish disappointment had led him astray, and frustrated his designs.
'Precisely my own feeling, Miss Coningham. I had no idea you were in the neighbourhood. 'I cannot say so much as that, for I had heard you were at The Moat; but I had no expectation of seeing you least of all in this house. I suppose you are on the scent of some musty old book or other, she added, approaching the door, where I stood with the handle in my hand.
Coningham was addressing, not the House of Commons, but his constituents at Brighton, he was interrupted by derisive cheers and contemptuous groans.
My only difficulty was what to do with Lilith; but I resolved for the mean time to leave her, as before, in the care of Styles, who seemed almost as fond of her as I was myself. Mr Coningham was at my door by ten o'clock, and we set out together for Umberden Church. It was a cold clear morning. The dying Autumn was turning a bright thin defiant face upon the conquering Winter.
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